We Will Survive

I have started Patrick Troughton's second season as the Doctor (series 5). "Tomb of the Cybermen" is a legendary episode, especially for the scene where everyone's favorite cybernetic bad guys emerge from their slumbers.

It's Victoria's first adventure as a fully-fledged member of the TARDIS crew. In some scenes she's a classic Who screamer lady while in others she puts on a brave face and is ready to confront danger. I suppose these two modes are not wholly contradictory but they do feel at odds here.

Watching this story brought "Kinda" and "Warriors of the Deep" to mind in that it would have benefited from better lighting. It's generally flat here with most spaces getting a uniform amount of it and so there's precious little interplay of light and shadow. A little chiaroscuro could have heightened the ominous mood and perhaps hinted at the human traitors instead of having them come out with mustaches a-twirlin'. It's also too bad because the opening scene of the tomb raiders gaining entrance to the Cybermen's home was shot well. Some of the exterior shots were done with a short lens so people are close up and in focus with some nice depth of field.

The Cyber-Controller is great. I've seen him in comics but this is the first time for me seeing that big brain dome on video. Great stuff! Now, why that costume didn't get better stuffing when Toberman threw him is beyond me. It looked like a Monty Python dummy that was dropped from a building. Concomitant to this is that we got more wire work when a Cyberman lifts Toberman up. We even see the wire briefly.

While I still prefer the Cybervoices from the 80s - David Banks rulez! - the Cybermen here are genuinely menacing. They're slow and lumbering, at first, but after a bit more thawing out, they prove to be rather quick and nimble. There's a scene where the Doctor is climbing out of the tomb entrance and a Cyberman suddenly appears to drag him back down and it really startled me. No, not just startled, scared. Watching them go from a stand still to swiftly engaging in violence is really unnerving here.

Kaftan and Klieg are archetypal promethean scientists who think they can exert control over the infinite evil of aliens with technological superiority. Duh!

Oh! The American accents on the guys who brought the tomb raiders to Telos was just classic. I loved how they seemed more interested in their fanny packs than the mechanical monsters beneath their feet.

As I noted above, Victoria is hit or miss here but she does show some initiative and she pushes back at the Doctor when he basically tells her she's too precious to go walking into danger. For his part, Jamie remains a man of action. The Doctor is mostly business here with his playful side tamped down, by and large.

The Cyber-conversion process is started on Toberman and I believe this is the first time we see a human being converted.

A very enjoyable episode. At this point, the show feels like it would in the 70s, it's shed that sense of trying to find its footing that it had for most of Hartnell's tenure.